Advanced robotic mechanisms tend to be complex and expensive systems. In an example, a conventional robotic hand is associated with several motors that must operate with relatively precise timing to cause fingers (and links therein) of the robotic hand to be at desired positions. For instance, a plurality of motors, which are typically located in a forearm or otherwise external to the robotic hand, can drive a respective plurality of cables, which (when driven) are configured to move links of fingers of the robotic hand relative to one another. If an element of such robotic hand becomes damaged, at least a portion of the robotic hand must be disassembled. The damaged element is then removed, and a new (or repaired) element is placed therein, which must then be connected to appropriate mechanical, electrical, and/or electromechanical elements in the robotic hand. It can be ascertained that a robotic hand may be damaged somewhat easily during operation. For instance, if a link of a robotic finger is subject to a sudden external force, such force can impact the motor by way of the cable that is used to drive the link. Thus, for example, the motor may be operating such that its output shaft is rotating in a first direction, and when the external torsion force is applied to the link, the cabling can exert a force that causes the output shaft to suddenly stop or reverse direction, potentially damaging the motor (and/or associated gearing).
Additionally, conventional robotic hands are not well-suited for performing many tasks that are relatively easily performed by human hands. For instance, conventional robotic hands are typically not well-suited for the task of lifting a coin lying flat on table and depositing the coin at a desired deposit location. As exteriors of conventional robotic hands tend to be composed of a metal or hard plastic, grasping the coin can be difficult. To assist in maintaining the grasp, an adhesive may be applied to distal links of robotic fingers; however, the robotic hand may then have difficulty depositing the coin at the desired deposit location, as the coin adheres to the finger of the robotic hand.
Still further, conventionally it has been difficult to control operation of a robotic hand in an intuitive manner. For example, with respect to conventional robotic hands, specialized control panels have been employed, wherein the specialized control panels can include joysticks, sliders, etc. These types of human-machine interfaces, however, do not map to intuitive movements of the human hand. To make up for such deficiency, gloves have been designed for use in controlling a robotic hand, wherein an exemplary glove has a plurality of sensors thereon that are configured to output data that is indicative of movement of a human hand that is wearing the glove. A robotic hand can be controlled based upon the data output by the sensors. This approach, however, can be somewhat imprecise, as the glove is customized for a hand of a particular size (e.g., for a hand of a first user). If a second user wishes to control the robotic hand using the glove, and a hand of the second user is not of substantially similar size/shape as the hand of the first user, data output by the sensors may not be precisely indicative of location of, for example, a proximal phalange relative to a medial phalange of a particular finger.